Allies

Brand positioning, tone of voice and web copy.

Some client relationships start in the strangest of ways.

It was 6.19pm on Friday October 4th 2024. Normally (let’s be honest, there is no normally in the life of a Freelance Copywriter), the laptop would have been tucked away and I’d have been in weekend mode.

But hearing that LinkedIn ping, I couldn’t help myself.

It was a message from a complete stranger. And it went like this:

Hi Jonathan,

I seen on your website that on your case studies you like to show what the enquiry message read so it’s really making me feel compelled to say something funny unfortunately I’m not funny and I’m sat in the pub having a Guinness after a busy week so have nothing to give.

Anyway, can we chat sometime? I’ve a project I need some help with.

About as Friday night as it gets.

So, I made a crack about how a couple more pints might bring out the funnies, and told him to drop me a line with a bit of detail. I closed the laptop and got back to my end of week knitting, or whatever it was I was up to.

A week later we were nattering on a zoom call and it all got rather exciting.

Turned out, my new Guinness-sipping buddy was about to launch a new design agency in Belfast.

Trouble was, they had no brand identity, positioning, tone of voice or web copy.

So, another week later I sent a proposal:

Please find my proposal attached. Any questions, please let me know.

Otherwise, I’ll be over here trying to type, with my fingers crossed at the same time.

Two minutes later (no exaggeration):

You can uncross your fingers. Let’s get started.

We look forward to working with you.

Geronimo!

Deposit paid, four days later I sent a questionnaire covering everything from:

‘What will you do that will be different to how your competitors approach their work? Let’s go one step further – if you’re a rule-breaker, what rules are you going to break?’

to:

‘If there were just one thing people remembered about you, what should it be – in other words, what do you want to be famous for?’

22 questions in total, and another 9 sparked by their initial answers. And those answers were encouraging.

Words like:

‘The industry has become so boring locally. Afraid. Woke. Where is the Rock n Roll…’
‘Creativity isn’t a luxury, it’s survival.’
‘(our values are) Bold, honest, relentless’.

Gutsy stuff. Enough to get any Copywriter chomping at the bit.

So I kicked off with nailing a defining idea, positioning piece, tone of voice principles, messaging and a strapline (that I’m really, really, really happy with) – ‘PREPARE FOR IMPACT‘.

In the tone of voice principles I wrote, there’s a paragraph that neatly sums up what I was aiming for:

‘We do whatever it takes to get you noticed. Break rocks. Fight demons. Draw blood if we have to. It may not be the straightest line, but it’ll sure make you famous. And we’ll have a hell of a time getting you there.’

Anyway, I’m waffling. Here’s a taster of the web copy that followed:

And here’s a few stills from a video script the client asked me to write:

If you want to see it moving and talking, click below or have a shufty over at the Allies website.

It’s only been live a few days as I write this, but judging by our last chat, it’s already reaping rewards. So much so, I’ve just landed some naming work for one of their first client projects.

And as if that wasn’t enough, this is the kind of feedback I’m getting from my lovely client:

“We’re so genuinely delighted with what you’ve done so far! Really bloody good work!”

A two exclamation mark thank you. Now, you don’t see that every day.

For more brand voice/web copy work of a different flavour, have a look at the Kauffmans case study